Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!

A Deconstruction, in which many hearts and feels are wrenched and wrung. Violently.

Chapter 29: Not My Daughter


It was a busy night in The Rain Dancer Bar in Hawker Island.

The residents of the pirate port were just beginning to recover from the severe drubbing they had received from the crew of the Pirate Queen. Even if the island had been spared a shelling, their embarrassing defeat had made them the laughingstock of the pirate world, so naturally there had been some resentment. In fact, the residents started celebrating wildly when news of the Pirate Queen's capture reached the island and hadn't stopped since.

The party had been going on for quite a few days now, and sobriety was as a result in short supply. The Rain Dancer Bar had been no exception.

"...and then despite my injuries, I said: 'Who am I? I am Skyblade!'" a very drunk pirate was bragging to anyone who would listen. "And that was when that mermaid realised how outmatched she was and she scuttled!"

If he was aiming to impress, he didn't succeed. The nearest girl in the bar just screeched with derisive laughter. "Excuse me? That's bull—! You just got your ass kicked by a fish! Me? I was the one who took on that Pirate Queen! She only got away from me that time because she got lucky!"

"I wasn't aware your 'not being able to carry your own fan' counted as her 'getting lucky', spaghetti-arms!" countered 'Skyblade'. "Besides, weren't you her 'number one ass-kisser'?"

"Why you—" the girl burst into a torrent of very crass language at this.

Normally this is the point where a barfight breaks out, but the timely entrance of a newcomer to the bar provided a distraction and the conflict was promptly forgotten. Everyone might be celebrating the fall of the Pirate Queen, that was true, but Hawker Island was still Hawker Island, and a newcomer meant a potential crew to join or a crew member to recruit.

This newcomer however, did not look very much like a typical pirate. He was clad head-to-toe in black, starting with a black cap (well pulled down), black shades, and a long sleeved black trench-coat. Even the sword slung behind his back appeared to be black.

While some might have commented on his apparent fondness for the colour, no one dared, as he radiated an aura of confidence and power that had the noisy bar hushed for a moment. This man in black was obviously Someone.

"I'm not recruiting," the Man In Black said immediately on noticing the attention.

Interest in the newcomer immediately dropped and the bar regulars went back to their tales of improbable victories and accomplishments.

The foul-mouthed girl from earlier however, was not as easily dissuaded. She had caught a glimpse of the the man's face, and apparently liked what she saw enough to accost him on his way to the bar.

"Of course someone like you wouldn't just take anyone," she said, making a clumsy attempt to be seductive. "But you don't know me—"

"—I'm neither seeking to recruit parasites, nor am I interested in whores," the Man In Black replied rudely. "Get out of my way."

The girl's face turned a plummy shade of purple, but before she could retort with her trademark verbal diarrhea, the voice of a man seated at the bar cut her off.

"Knock it off, dumbass. Don't you know Cipher Pol when you see one?"

The shade of purple faded into green remarkable quickly. Almost as quickly the mass of pirates fled the building, in fact.

"Well, that took care of the lot of them," said the man at the bar, turning around to reveal a pair of double-jointed arms. "About time you guys sent someone here. What's this about rejecting my claim for that bounty, eh?"

"I wasn't involved in that particular discussion, Mr. Shipwright," said the Man In Black. "I'm here about a certain infamous pirate ship."

"Oh, that one. So at least I'm getting salvage rights to that then? Shame about that ship. It'd be an even bigger shame to let all that Adam wood go to waste."

"Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more discreet."

"Oh yeah. Let's go to my place then."

The Man In Black followed the shipwright out of the bar without further comment.

The shipyards were deserted when the two men arrived at the long-arm's workshop. As it was night, all work in the area had ceased for the day.

"My office is right this way," the shipwright said as he unlocked the door, stepped inside, and turned on the lights. Then he stopped in his tracks and gaped.

Seated at his very own desk, on his very own chair, was an ominous-looking figure in a hazard suit.

"Y-you! What are you doing here?"

"You didn't change your combination code."

It wasn't the seated figure who said this, but someone who had been waiting behind the door. The shipwright turned and found himself face to face with a wiry, bespectacled, middle-aged man he knew and hated.

"You again!"

Mr. 'You-Again' however, didn't seemed fazed by this exclamation, and continued speaking calmly. "Knowing that your safe had already been compromised, I'd expected it to be the first thing you'd do after we left. But you didn't.

"Strange, isn't it? Someone paranoid like you taking the risk that a bunch of pirates wouldn't come back and empty out the contents of your safe? It's almost as though you had some reason to be sure we wouldn't come back..."

"What are you trying to accuse me of, huh?" the shipwright bristled. Then there was a pause as something else that was said sunk in. "Wait, you mean you've been messing around with my safe again?!"

"I didn't need to mess around, really. I just opened it. You've certainly gotten a lot richer since the last time I had a look inside."

"You damn busybody! What's it to you? You have no right coming back here and harassing me, our business was done!"

Something crashed in through the ceiling at that moment, narrowly missing the long-arm. He jumped back and swore. Then he began to take notice of what exactly it was that had fallen. It looked like a section of a ship's mast.

"I believe this is yours," a voice drawled from above. There was a flash of bright orange as a mermaid jumped down from the hole she had made in the roof. "Well, to be precise, the tracer beacon embedded within, is."

The shipwright backed away in fear as he recognised a much-feared serial-killer.

"I should mention I also found the pardon letter in your safe," Mr. 'You-Again' continued speaking, and he was shaking in anger. "The one awarded for 'aiding the capture of the criminal known as the 'Pirate Queen'. And, there was a copy of a bounty claim for 666 million..."

"Such a coincidental number," added the mermaid, a dangerous glint in her eye. She took a threatening step forward.

Realising the game was up, the shipwright attempted to flee the office. The door, however, happened to be obstructed by the Man in Black, who had been quietly observing the consecutive confrontations with an air of amusement.

"Your guys told me they were dead!" the shipwright couldn't help yelling at the Man in Black. "You had all the info you needed! How could you screw up and still let them get away?"

"With long-range gunships, tracker mines and a tracing beacon... Indeed, by all rights they should have been dead. Illogical that they somehow slipped through the Marine forces undetected, isn't it?" The Man in Black reached for his sword as he said this, showing no trace of fear.

"Yeah, that's right! I cooperated and I deserve protection! You're Cipher Pol and they're both wanted, aren't they? Damn it, that's the Sand-Dragon and that one—" he pointed to the hazard-suited figure, "—is the Deranged Disinfector. Get them! "

"Actually, that's just my empty suit. I was airing it out while I went out to fetch you, Mr. Shipwright," the Man In Black replied, drawing his weapon.

It took the shipwright a moment to realise his meaning. Then he blanched. "Y-you... you're..."

The Man in Black levelled Shusui's long black blade at the shipwright.

"The Disinfector returned to take care of unfinished business," he said, switching personas with startling ease. "Long-arm shipwright need not worry, this particular transaction won't take long."


"Well he's been keeping busy," Mr. Suesse said to the Disinfector later, as they surveyed the ships docked in the yard. "Looks like he managed to salvage and rebuild quite a few of those pirate ships you sunk the last time we were here."

"Conditions of ships unlikely to be very seaworthy long-term."

"Maybe, but I have a idea on how we can make use of them. How long they last won't be an issue. Speaking of long: is it time yet?"

The Disinfector checked his watch. "Affirmative. Time to relieve Walker Fishman."

The aforementioned fishman was in one of the warehouses, keeping watch on a very trussed-up prisoner. This prisoner (who was not the shipwright) was currently clad in a singlet and boxers, his rather stylish all-black ensemble having been appropriated by Law/Disinfector earlier on.

"Ready to talk now?" asked Law, after the two men had greeted Walker and removed the prisoner's gag.

"Oh goody! I thought you'd never ask!" the prisoner giggled happily.

"Well, that's quite a change in personality," commented Mr. Suesse. I should mention, he left it ambigious on whether he was referring to the prisoner, or The Disinfector.

"That long-acting truth serum Cipher Pol uses is quite potent. It would have been wasted on that shipwright. Didn't take much to make him spill everything."

Mr. Suesse agreed with the Disinfector by providing a very unflattering description of the backstabbing long-arm who had sold them out to the Marines.

"Well, there is a certain element of irony in using the serum against its owner. Don't you think so, Mr. Cipher Pol?"

"Oh yes indeedy!" the Cipher Pol agent agreed enthusiastically. As Law had noted, the truth serum was indeed very effective. "It's very ironic all right!"

Law squatted down so he could address his captive face-to-face. "Now, tell me about the Pirate Queen. Where did they take her? Impel Down?"

"Impel Down? Nah... Marine High Command got strong-armed into selling her off to a Tenryuubito. Boy, was the Old Fleet Admiral Stamper hopping mad about that!"

Mr. Suesse however, did not care to hear about the feelings of Admiral Stamper. "Another one? Which one of those ten-rude-bit-o bastards has my daughter this time?"

"The name of the Tenryuubito?" pressed Law.

"St. Magnus!" the agent readily replied.

Of course, we've already known for a few chapters now that St. Magnus bought Mar and it was because of Mrs. Suesse's influence, but Mar's crew did not know this, so let's let them have their collective moment of dumbfounded surprise at this bit of information.

"Hey Disinfector, do you believe in coincidence?" Mr. Suesse said later after the interrogation of the Cipher Pol agent had concluded.

"No," replied Law flatly. He was frowning.

"Same Magnus-hunam?" wondered Walker. "Same hunam as one holding Lock-hunam mate?"

"Fate is a strange mistress," was Gurnade's comment after she joined them and was updated on the situation. She had been busy disposing of the long-arm shipwright. For the sake of the rating of this story I shall not elaborate any further on the specifics.

"I had felt honour-bound to help you rescue your captain. After all, had she not expended her power during the ambush, we would have all perished."

"Actually, I still don't understand how this whole fruit-demon—"

"—devil-fruit," corrected Law.

"Devil-fruit," repeated Mr. Suesse slowly, "—deal works and how my daughter apparently has some of kind bizarre magic power that made all of us ridiculously lucky back then, but does it have anything to do with why this St. Magnus bought her?"

"Mayhap. St. Magnus is the kind of 'man' who collects people. The more famous and unique they are, the more they appeal to him. But his hubris benefits us here. We can focus our efforts on him instead of spreading ourselves thin."

"You're right," Mr. Suesse said. "We know where Blake is. And by some stroke of luck Mar's there too. We stick to our original plan— we raid St. Magnus, and I'm getting my family back."


And now that you all know how the raid on Mariejois came about, let's jump back to the halls of St. Magnus' mansion, where Mar, Mrs. Suesse and Red (formerly known as X. Drake) were currently deciding whether they should be going back the way they came in case the invaders did turn out to be Mar's rescue party.

The nice thing about being the Narrator is that you get to have omniscience, and know exactly what's going on in this situation. But while I know (and get to tell you all so you know) that it is indeed Mar's crew, Mar didn't, and only had a few indications to go by.

And worst of all, she couldn't be absolutely sure and yet had to convince two adults to abandon their well-planned escape strategy on a shaky hunch.

"Marie, how can you be sure?" Her mother was using that exasperating patient-mother-addressing-unreasonable-child tone that Mar hated so much. "I want to believe your father is alive too, but you're saying he's leading a bunch of people and charging in to save us. You know your father, and that's not something he'd be capable of—"

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Mar, I regret to say, snapped at her mother. "That's exactly what Dad was planning to do before I got caught! We were going to raid this place and rescue you! Didn't you hear what those guards were saying about the locks? That was Dad! He's been this kickass lock-picker and gun-slinger and I can't believe you're not even giving him any credit..."

Under normal circumstances, speaking like that to your mother would have earned you a severe reprimand. But at the mention of Mr. Suesse's exploits, a flush suddenly came over Mrs. Suesse's face.

"You mean he was going to come for me? H-he was going to take on Mariejois to save me? Oh Garreth..."

Mrs. Suesse's face had taken on a distinctly gooey expression that had Mar half-wishing she hadn't opened her mouth. Let me remind you once again that Mar is a teenager, and therefore the very notion of your parents getting all romantic for each other is absolute anathema.

The timing wasn't particularly appropriate either, as two guards picked then to wander in and spoil the moment (or save the day, depending on whether you were Mrs. Suesse or Mar). Fortunately, Red was on them before they could figure out what was going on and no alarm was raised.

"We can't just stand here. We need to decide now: forwards or back?" he warned them after he had finished bashing the two guards' heads together and knocking them unconscious.

"Back," said Mrs. Suesse, apparently convinced of Mar's hunch now. "I can't take the chance of my husband being here and putting himself in further danger searching the mansion for us after we've left." Mar cringed at the reappearance of The Flush as her mother said this.

Red did not argue. "Very well. We go back. But a warning: if we run into St. Magnus, his voice will be able to trigger the vocal override on my controller. I will be forced to obey him."

"You're right," Mar's mother said at once. "You should go on without us, Red. It's too big a risk."

But whatever X. Drake had been and however far he had fallen in life, he still wasn't the type of person to let two women run headlong into danger while he fled to save his own skin.

"No, I'll come," he said firmly, and one look at his face convinced Mar it would be futile to argue. "If you run into patrols, or if those invaders turn out to be not your people, better I be there."

And so the three fugitives turned their back on easy freedom, and made their way back into the heart of danger.


The journey back felt surreal to Mar. True, all she did was run behind Red and her mother, but the uncertainty and the self-doubt was taxing. Her senses were straining to find clues to confirm her hunch, but Red dispatched the security patrols they came across too fast for her to catch any conversation.

"The fighting is heavy ahead," Red said at one point, listening intently after a vicious and one-sided skirmish with another unfortunate security detail. "I can hear them."

"If they are fighting someone, it must be my crew," was all Mar could trust herself to say.

"Then we go towards them. Stay behind cover when you can. Being caught in the crossfire is a real danger."

They were back in the area with the rooms filled with the glass display cases. Mar could not imagine a more inappropriate place to have a fight. Somewhere from one of the nearby rooms, she could hear the rumble of a gun and the tinkling sound of shattering glass. A lot of St. Magnus' collection wasn't going to be very collectible after this.

Red was coughing a little—the strong smell of gunpowder was wafting in from the next room and was interfering with his enhanced sense of smell. He evidently didn't enjoy it. "Looks like security set up a cannonade. They've got the invaders pinned down. How certain are you that they're your crew?" he turned and asked Mar.

Mar bit her lip and tried to sound confident. "I'm their captain, I should know..."

Red grinned toothily, as though he found her earnestness amusing. "All right then, Captain." Then he put down the bags he had been carrying, mock-saluted, and disappeared through the door. Within seconds the sounds from the next room changed. The gun-fire slowed, and Mar could hear the surprised shouts from the security personnel. And then an eerie silence as the guns stopped firing.

After a longer period of continuing silence, Mar shot her mother a questioning look.

"Red must be done with them," he mother replied, but her tone was tense. "Stay behind me, we're going to have a look."

The next room was a war-zone. Near the door, expensive furniture had been piled up to provide some sort of barricade. Some sort of turret-gun had been set up behind the barrier, and while the gunners now lay mauled on the floor, the barrels of the guns were still smoking.

Over the scattered bodies stood Red, blood-covered and with his back to them. But something seemed wrong with his stance. It was too rigid, too uneasy, almost as if he was being held immobile by some paralysing grip.

"Red?"

Then Mar heard her mother give a gasp, just as a familiar voice cut through the silence.

"Magda! There you are! Where have you been, My Daughter? Didn't you know the mansion is under attack? This is no time to be gathering your favourite possessions!"

Her mother too, had frozen in fear. The worst scenario possible had occurred.

"St. Magnus..." groaned one of the wounded personnel, who had just come to.

"Stupid trash," the Tenryuubito said in disgust, kicking the man in question. "Going down so easily! You were all supposed to protect me! I nearly got killed by one of my own pets!"

Her mother was staring at Red, who was still immobilised as though by some unseen force. Had St. Magnus given him some sort of command to stop? It seemed like it.

"Don't be afraid, Magda," said St. Magnus, mistaking Mrs. Suesse's apprehension for a fear of the 'unstable' slave. "Those invaders must have freed Red and let him run wild, but not to worry, Daddy has everything under control. Red will obey me, and he will protect us while we make our way to the panic room. Red, come here!"

Red slowly turned around, and when Mar saw his face, she immediately wished he hadn't. Now she understood why they called the implant a 'puppet controller'— his every motion was jerky and forced, like a puppet controlled by invisible strings. And worst of all, the implant by default did not seem to override free thought, and Mar could see Red was very aware of what was going on. His expression reflected his desperation and frustration at once again being made a prisoner in his own body, and his eyes reminded her of an animal that had thought it had escaped a cage only to be trapped again.

And Mar couldn't help thinking that it was her fault for bringing them back.

But we must not be forgetting that a fight had been going on in this very room, and Red's savaging of the gunners had done its work. The invaders, who had been pinned down behind the doorway, soon realised that the firing had stopped, and were emerging from their cover to push forward. Mar could see movement from further down the passage, and a large hulking figure that looked almost like—

"WALKER!" Mar screamed in recognition. "Walker! We're here!"

The giant fishman, who seemed to be using a torn-off metal door as a shield, turned at the sound of her voice. Then his beady little eyes widened as he spotted her. With a roar, he charged towards the barricade.

"Hideous fish!" St. Magnus said in revulsion, and pulled out a pistol. But the small-calibre bullets he fired were simply deflected by the door, and having witnessed the fishman's strength, Mar knew it would take more than the piddly little barricade to stop the infamous Demon Walker.

Unfortunately, she was right.

"Red! Stop that beast! Transform if you have to!" St. Magnus commanded.

Unable to disobey, the slave lurched forward to meet the fishman, his body growing rapidly in size until he was a giant towering high above them and nearly touching the ceiling.

I am aware I have previously used the word 'giant' to describe the fishman Walker as well. In hindsight, maybe I should have used the word 'sorta-big' instead, because if we are talking about a largeness scale from one to ten here, Walker would have weighed in as a six, while Red would be a ten.

Mar had 'seen' X. Drake's full form before of course, but you know what they say about how seeing something illustrated and seeing the real thing is not quite the same. Drake's dinosaur form in Sabaody had looked cool. In person, it was also terrifying.

Drake's unnatural gait seemed to have disappeared on the changing of forms, and he easily intercepted Walker before the fishman reached them.

The sorta-big fishman did not let the sudden appearance of a giant dinosaur faze him much; he met the challenge by avoiding the snapping jaws and spiking Drake in the neck with his venomous spines. But while every other creature that had been spiked so far had recoiled and crumpled in agonising pain, Drake/Red-the-Dinosaur did not even seem to have felt the strike and followed up with another credible attempt to bite Walker in half.

For Mar the whole situation couldn't have gotten worse. Both her allies were being forced to fight each other, and as much as she wanted Walker to overpower Drake so her crew could rescue them, it didn't look very likely. What did look likely however, was the prospect of the room collapsing down on them— so much collateral damage was being done. Mar wondered if any of the others: Gurnarde, The Disinfector or her father, were nearby, but despite her expectant looking out for them, she saw nothing in the clouds of dust and falling debris.

Mar quickly forgot about looking out for them when she heard her mother cry out a protest, and then St. Magnus' voice rising above the sounds of battle:

"Don't worry about the slave, Magda. I'll buy you a new one. Now come with me!"

St. Magnus was forcibly leading her mother away into the next room. I might add that Mar did consider going after them, but this time she did think over her actions first and realised it wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. St. Magnus had a gun and she was still helpless. If only she could use her powers, but the devil-fruit power-nulllifying sea-stone bands saw to that—

Then the light bulb went off over her head.

Sea-stone. Which nullified devil-fruit powers.

Drake's included.

If she could just get close enough to touch Drake with the sea stone he'd revert to his human form, which Walker could likely defeat. And with Walker's help surely she could save her mother?

But right now, Walker looked like the one needing help. For all his skill in Fishman Karate and innate fishman advantages, he'd score hit after hit on Drake, and the giant rex would just shrug it off and keep attacking. One particular vicious lash of Drake's tail sent Walker flying into a display case, shattering it. The dinosaur followed up by charging towards him, jaws snapping.

What Mar really wanted to do at that moment was to turn around and run in fear. But she had to save her mother and Walker, so she summoned her courage and ran forward into the fray, baring her wrists so that the sea-stone was exposed.

"Red! Drake! No! Stop! Fight it!" she shouted in the futile hope it would do some good.

For a moment Drake slowed a little, but there didn't seem to be much control left in him and he continued his attack almost immediately. Fortunately, Walker managed to recover in time and dived out of the way. There was a crash as what was left of the case promptly got flattened by several tons of raging dino. Yet the creature did not even pause, and neatly turned back around and charged back right in Mar's direction.

Suddenly, trying to touch him with her sea-stone bands seemed like a remarkably deluded idea. Belatedly, Mar realised she was going to get trampled or savaged before she even got anywhere close.

Walker was roaring for her to get out of the way, but before she could respond, someone tackled her from the side. It was with such force that she was knocked off her feet and they both tumbled over and over, out of the way, right through the open doorway, and into the next room.

It also knocked the wind out of her lungs. Mar lay stunned for a while, disoriented, then she realised who it was who had saved her life.

"Gurnarde?"

"Ah good, you're still alive." The split-finned mermaid seemed genuinely pleased at this as she got to her feet. "I commend your courage, Captain, but getting in range of that creature was not advisable."

"Where's my dad and the Disinfector?"

"Fear not, they are on their—"

There was a long silence. Mar wondered why her rescuer had stopped speaking. Then she looked up and saw that Gurnarde was staring fixedly at something behind her. The mermaid's face had twisted into a bizarre expression that was both shock and grief, and there were tears in her eyes.

"Fukaboshi-sama."

Mar followed her gaze and realised just where they were: they were back in the Mer-King's room, and it was the sight of the giant blue merman which had such a profound effect on her companion.

"Fukaboshi-sama... what have they done to you? What have they... how dare they?!" Gurnarde seemed to have completely forgotten the present; that her brother was fighting for his life in the next room, or that Mar was there. She was walking towards the glass case, like a sleepwalker in a dream.

"Watch out!"

The warning snapped Gurnarde out of her trance, just in time to dodge the bullets that had been meant for her. Instead they hit the glass case of the Mer-King's display, shattering the panel.

"Magda, be silent! You've given us away!"

Wordlessly Gurnarde turned to face the shooter— St. Magnus, who up to that point, had been quietly hiding in the corner. A prickly chill ran down Mar's spine at the sight of the mermaid's face. There was no fear, but just pure, unadulterated hatred.

From the folds of her cloak the mermaid drew out a dial, clicked the top, and threw it into the Mer-King's case. "A pyre for you, my king," she said tranquilly. "Forgive me for taking so long."

Behind her, the Mer-King's display case burst into roaring flame.

"Wretched fish!" St. Magnus looked livid as he took aim with his gun. "My prized merman display... how dare you!"

Gurnarde just stared at him unflinchingly. "I will turn your bones into sand, Magnus. And feed it to your children!"

She was interrupted as a section of wall gave way and in flew Walker, followed by Drake, still in his full form. The fishman crash-landed hard, groaned, and did not get up again.

"Walker!"

"Red! Good! Quickly, protect me! Do whatever it takes!"

Everything was happening too fast. Gurnarde turned, saw Walker downed, and a murderous expression crossed her face. But her hatred for St. Magnus appeared to outweigh her concern for her brother, because she still turned back towards St. Magnus and raised her hand, from which was dripping dark blood.

"Gurnarde, wait!" Mar shouted in alarm, realising the danger her mother was in. But St. Magnus started shooting, and Gurnarde retaliated with her blood-bullets.

Instinctively, Mar screamed, ducked and hit the floor as multiple projectiles whistled past overhead. Shattering glass, the sound of bullets striking flesh, and then silence.

Was her mother dead? With dread Mar opened her eyes again, expecting the worst. But what she saw shocked her.

"Red?" she heard her mother say.

Drake had transformed into his hybrid form, and had jumped between both combatants, shielding both St. Magnus and her mother from Gurnarde, and Gurnarde from St. Magnus. And in the process he had taken every bullet meant for both parties. There was a strange, triumphant look in his face as he sank to his knees, blood dripping from multiple wounds.

"I have to obey whatever he commands me to," he said to Gurnarde as they locked eyes. "If you want to get to him you have to get through me first. Think you can do it?"

Those words could have come across as a threat, but there was something not quite right in the tone they were said in. There was no menace in his voice, just an apologetic calmness.

In fact, now that Mar thought about it, his choice of jumping in and taking the bullet to save St. Magnus made no sense. No, not if he could have chosen to attack Gurnarde in that same time and interrupt her attack instead. It was then when Mar remembered what Drake had said about him being good at finding loopholes in the Master's instructions, and she understood. Even with his body no longer in control, Drake had still found a way to handicap himself and throw the fight in their favour.

Even as she thought this, Gurnarde and Drake were already engaging in an all-out battle. Mar considered running to revive Walker, but as she turned around, she froze in fear.

"So it was you they came for," the Tenryuubito said, twitching with anger, his gun aimed at her. "All this damage to my property because of you. Well, if they want you so badly, I'll give them a nice corpse to bring home!"

Without further ado, he pulled the trigger.

His shot went wide and hit nothing, because Mar's mother, realising what St. Magnus was about to do, had jumped in and knocked his hand away. The two adults grappled for control of the weapon, but when the struggle ended and they drew apart, it was Mrs. Suesse who held the gun in her hand.

"Magda, what are you doing?" St. Magnus was livid. "Don't be stupid! I'll buy you a new slave, but kill this one!"

Mrs. Suesse replied in three weighted words:

"Not my daughter."

It took St. Magnus several moments to understand what she had meant, and his expression hardened.

"That trash is your... you... you're not my daughter."

"Not the one you know," her mother countered, keeping the gun trained on the Tenryuubito.

But St. Magnus didn't appear fearful. "Then you will regret this. Red! Forget the fish! Kill Magda!"

And under the control of his implant, Drake obeyed. Avoiding a strike from Gurnarde, he turned his back on his opponent, darted across the room, and pounced on Mrs. Suesse before she could get a shot off. The gun flew out of her hands, and went clattering across the floor.

"Mom!"

Even though she didn't know how to use a gun or what she would do with it once she picked it up, Mar ran for the weapon. But before she could get close enough, someone yanked her by her hair, and another blow from behind knocked her down. Dazed, she got up and kept crawling, only to see St. Magnus ahead of her and reaching for the weapon.

Just as Mar thought he would succeed in getting it, a large trident pierced his hand and pinned it to the floor. St. Magnus screamed in pain as a spiky-finned foot kicked the gun away.

"Order him to stop!" Gurnarde demanded, grinding the trident (which Mar vaguely recalled had been part of the Mer-King's display) deeper to inflict more pain. "He obeys your voice, does he not? Make him stop!"

"Red..." St. Magnus gasped defiantly. "Kill the Pirate Queen—"

Gurnarde struck the Tenryuubito to make him stop, but it was too late, Drake tossed Mrs. Suesse aside and went straight for Mar. She had a split second glimpse of his apologetic face before he was on her, and his strength was terrifying.

In any other situation, Mar would probably have been killed pretty quick. But Drake was fighting the controller and holding back, and we know this because instead of slashing at Mar with his claws (which would be the easiest way of killing her), he opted to do what he had done with Mrs. Suesse earlier: pin her down and slowly choke her to death instead. He also left her arms free, allowing Mar to do the only thing she could in her situation: touch her sea-stone bracelets against him.

Green skin gave way to peach, the monstrous face melted away into human features, and the hold on her neck lessened in force. Mar was still being strangled slowly, but at least Drake no longer had the strength to instantly crush her throat.

"Sea-stone. Clever girl," she heard Drake say weakly as the sea-stone drained his strength. "Keep it in contact, it's your only chance."

Behind him, St. Magnus was screaming in pain as Gurnarde dealt with him using her own special brand of agony.

"I said: Command him to stop!"

But even with his life on the line, St. Magnus did not yield.

"I won't let you scum have what you want! Even if you strip the flesh from his bones, Red will not stop killing her unless I give the order. And I am a Tenryuubito— I would rather die than take orders from a damned fish!"

Mar was fighting for breath, but to no avail. Even injured, weakened and in human-form, Drake was still far stronger than she was, and she couldn't last much longer. Gurnarde seemed to realise this too, because she stopped trying to coerce St. Magnus. Instead, she dipped her hand in his blood, drew her arm back, and took careful aim at the now-human and vulnerable Drake.

But it was not Gurnarde who struck first. There was a gunshot, and Mar felt her attacker's grip loosen as his body shuddered. Something warm and liquid was dripping on to her face, and she could smell fresh blood.

A short distance away stood a recovered Mrs. Suesse, the smoking gun still in her shaking hands.

"That won't be enough, Magda," Drake said calmly, coughing up blood. "You need to aim for the head."

"Red..." Her mother's voice was choked with grief and horror.

"It's all right. I couldn't have gone much further with you anyway... not with the tracking device on my implant." The ghost of a smile was on his face again. "I'd only meant to go with you as far as the ocean. But this... this is close enough."

Mar could feel his body push against the energy-sapping bands of sea-stone, almost if welcoming the feel of it on his flesh.

"I can't fight it much longer. She doesn't have much time. Please."

There was the sound of footsteps coming closer. Mrs. Suesse was crying, but she still brought the muzzle of the gun to the back of Drake's head.

A look of beatific peace came across the long-suffering slave's face.

"Thank you."

He closed his eyes.

Starved of air, Mar could feel her consciousness slipping away.

But she still heard the gun go off before the darkness claimed everything.


End of Chapter 29


A/N: To the readers who liked Drake/Red, I apologise for this chapter. And yes, Happy Guest, the blue-haired merman is indeed who you thought it was.

Also, I should mention the name 'The Rain Dancer Bar' was adapted from the handles of one of my frequent reviewers, The Lovely Rain Dancer. I was at a loss for bar names and decided to pick one from the list. LRD, Hope you don't mind ;)


Q and A

Baubles 8/8/12 . chapter 28

...there was one thing about Mar's character that bothered me a bit.

There were several characters who died in a rather gory fashion and Mar lacked a proper reaction. I know you did have her screaming in this chapter but it seems like she had forgotten all about it later, and in a early chapter when Slashfang (is that right?) died, Mar had quite unconcernedly offered Sunny to dump them. I feel like, that a ordinary girl, who is not a insane killer, would be at least more bothered than Mar had been. Was it because you didn't want Mar to be one of those ridiculous goody-goody main character that stops everyone from killing?

Phalanx:

I totally blame Mr. Suesse for this ;) She grew up with him reading stories like 'The Count of Monte Cristo' , 'Journey to the West', and 'Conan the Barbarian' to her (well he tried and failed with 'Conan', anyway). All three of these are stories which tended to not hold back on the subject of death and people killing other people, so I guess she' s a bit desensitised to people dying and a little less bothered about the idea than one would think.

All jokes aside though, if you pay attention to the story generally Mar tends to react more adversely to (attempted) killings when

It's gory and violent

Example: Screaming when a) The Disinfector slashed open the swordswoman in Sabaody, b) when Captain Marrow impaled Walker and c) when Drake disemboweled the Custodian.

It involves people she has empathizes with or has emotional investment in.

Example: Luffy, Chopper, the Straw-Hats, her crew etc.

In cases like Slashfang (who dropped dead suddenly without any external injury and was going to take the Sunny from her anyway), Hana, Captain Marrow, Admiral Imba (who were all going to kill her), plus Squall and the pirates in Hawker Island, she's a little less affected, since she perceived them as enemies.

So yeah, Mar's not exactly saintly or idealistic about the concept of death. It's not to say she isn't affected by it, but it's like the difference between reading about a stranger dying in an accident in the newspaper, and witnessing someone you know die.

Interestingly, if she hadn't been acquainted with Gurnarde and Walker, I don't think Mar would have been as affected emotionally as she was by being in the room full of dead mermaids and fishmen.


Once again, thanks for the wonderful reviews, corrections and feedback (and don't stop)! I appreciate your feedback, and it's your comments that help me improve.

Incidentally, if anyone has been doing some rereading of the earlier chapters, you might have noticed I've been going back and doing some revising. The Disinfector no longer SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS CONSTANTLY FOR PARAGRAPHS ON END, he only does it when he's shouting. Oh and the narrator is a little less obnoxious. He's still obnoxious though. Also, corrected some shoddy grammar and punctuation. If you guys see any, do let me know!

In case any one is wondering what's going on with my writing schedule, I'll probably be working on finishing this story before I go on to 'Supernova Eleven' and 'Though a Bird Can't Fly'. I'm sorry for the wait, but I am not giving up on them, I'm just prioritising the one I'm currently most into. Stay tuned!

Oh and I nearly forgot:

Reader colourdrifter requested a sketch of the Red's hybrid form. I threw in a chibi Walker in there just for kicks. The the sketch is in my DA, link on my profile.